NEW DELHI: The government is set to block Binance, Kucoin and Huobi, among other global virtual digital asset service providers in India for their failure to register under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex are the other entities that are facing similar action.
In March, VDA service providers were brought into the ambit of anti-money laundering framework and were mandated to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and comply with compliance requirements under PMLA, which relate to reporting and record-keeping.
While the FIU has issued compliance show cause notices to the nine offshore entities, it has also written to the electronics and IT ministry to block the URLs of said outfits that are operating illegally without complying with the provisions of PMLA.
“Till date 31 VDA service providers have registered with FIU. However, several offshore entities though catering to a substantial part of Indian users, were not getting registered and coming under the anti-money laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism framework,” an official statement said.
Over the last few months the government has tightened regulation around crypto assets, seeking to impose a tax deducted at source as well as tax on gains, to track the investors and the exchanges.
The latest move comes at a time when investigative agencies have found evidence of crypto assets being illegally used to route funds out of the country.
Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex are the other entities that are facing similar action.
In March, VDA service providers were brought into the ambit of anti-money laundering framework and were mandated to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and comply with compliance requirements under PMLA, which relate to reporting and record-keeping.
While the FIU has issued compliance show cause notices to the nine offshore entities, it has also written to the electronics and IT ministry to block the URLs of said outfits that are operating illegally without complying with the provisions of PMLA.
“Till date 31 VDA service providers have registered with FIU. However, several offshore entities though catering to a substantial part of Indian users, were not getting registered and coming under the anti-money laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism framework,” an official statement said.
Over the last few months the government has tightened regulation around crypto assets, seeking to impose a tax deducted at source as well as tax on gains, to track the investors and the exchanges.
The latest move comes at a time when investigative agencies have found evidence of crypto assets being illegally used to route funds out of the country.
